His to Keep (Regency Scoundrels Book 2) Read online

  “Perhaps, I do not. But my partner no doubt will. Oh, he has been known to strike the fear of God into people.”

  “Partner?”

  “Yes, didn’t you know? I have had a helping hand in my little plot to come here, though I do think my partner wouldn’t like my rather brutal tactics that I employ. He’s exceedingly chivalrous when it comes to the fair sex and children. He believes they are to be protected.”

  Her stomach turned sour, dread rushing throughout her body. “Who is this partner?”

  “It is I, your lord husband.” Archie stepped out of the shadows.

  Her heart stopped. “Why?” She felt something snap inside of her. This was the worst kind of betrayal.

  “Because my dearest, there is more to me than meets the eye.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Your wife and I have come to an agreement.” The Marquis smiled from ear to ear, his eyes glinting with greed.

  Gemma felt faint. She was going to keel over under the stress. Her eyes hadn’t left Archie’s face. How could he betray her? Was he going to sell her off to Challant as some men had been known to do with their wives?

  “Have you? Because well, I shall have you know, as my wife, the lady is mine,” Archie stood tall and straight. He commanded a certain regal attitude now, one that she’d never noticed before. It would seem that he was schooled in the art of illusion. The man could play many faces without missing one beat. The hardened look in Archie’s eyes now made her believe he could best any man in battle. She even wondered if he could bloody Mallory. He was all kinds of danger rolled into one man. Her blood ran cold and fear seized her heart. She had leg-shackled herself to this monster, till death parted them—which seemed more a reality than ever before.

  “Ah, I know it. Alas, I thought you would be good to me, and allow me to sample her wares,” the Marquis looked hopeful. His features softened slightly, his eyes lost a bit of their coldness.

  “She is mine, and shall belong to no other man. Is that understood?” Archie accentuated the last word.

  He was attempting to boldly state that last bit, and she felt a little bit of gratitude toward him for doing so. Nonetheless, she felt as if she was being treated like someone’s chattel. She belonged to no man, least of all the sort of man that Archie turned out to be.

  “Then, of course I shall let you have her. You know I cannot deny you anything. I suppose it was your ingenuity that got me this far—and we both lost something we cherished to Mallory, and he shall be made to pay. Though, if I am not allowed to have a bit of a jolly with Lady Northam, I shall have to have something. I simply must be compensated for all of the strenuous activity I’ve been put through. She could have killed me when she shot me.” He looked to his winged arm, with a pout. “Why did you let her shoot at me? I thought you were on my side. So, you must see my side of the story, I will not go away from this little adventure without some kind of reward.”

  “How does twenty thousand pounds sound to you?” Archie sighed.

  “That shall do it.” The Marquis grinned broadly. “It wasn’t just my brother that was killed anyway, he was yours as well. I’ll leave you to it, then.” Challant walked away from them, leaving them alone.

  “You should just plunge a dagger through my heart, Archie. I knew I was right to hate you from the moment I met you. Mallory never should have trusted you!”

  “He trusted me, because I wanted him to. You shall find, in due course, wife that I am a man that always gets what he wants— when he wants it.”

  “Were you the mastermind behind all of this?” she asked, in a soft voice.

  “I confess that I was. I was never going to harm Susan or Elizabeth for that matter. St. Martin has caused me more distress and heartbreak than he will ever know. Louis-Daniel and I are brothers. We share the same father. Challant is older than me. His mother was married to a French aristocrat and she decided to warm my father’s bed when he was visiting the French Royal Court, and fell pregnant with a child that wasn’t her husband’s. It wasn’t a surprise. Her husband knew he was unable to father children, and he wanted an heir, so he had encouraged the match between my father and his wife. Once she was pregnant, she broke all ties to my father—and he returned to my mother in Scotland, and married her. Unfortunately, The Terror took what little remained of Louis-Daniel’s family, and he came to live with us—he had been safe in England with an uncle of his, during the time of the troubles there. When I left for the Wars, our brother, Jamie was only fifteen. When your brother killed him, he was too young to die! He was seventeen! They never should have been where Mallory had taken them but no matter, I have waited too long for this day. Louis-Daniel knew who had done it, and even though I was serving with the Royal Navy at the time, I bided my time, and made certain I traveled in the same circles as your Mallory. I knew Malcolm as well. He was a genuinely nice fellow. If only Mallory had been the one to die, my ax would have already been grinded, and we wouldn’t be standing here right now, looking at each other as enemies. My parents have been heartbroken since Jamie’s death. They were inconsolable for a great deal of time. Do you know what it is like to watch your parents waste away because they have lost a child?”

  “I do, actually,” Gemma returned coldly. “My mother and father were both torn up with grief when they heard of Malcolm’s death. My mother only continued on because she had other children that needed her, and my father…my father drank and gambled his life away, leaving us with nothing. When Mallory discovers your betrayal he will kill you, and make me a widow.” Coldness tinged her voice. He looked surprised that she had turned on him so easily.

  “Maybe he shall at that. He killed my brother…and Mallory understands the old eye for an eye sort of justice more than you or I.”

  Her stomach dropped out from beneath him. “What do you mean he killed your brother?” she asked uneasily.

  “My brother got in the way during a skirmish with the French, and he killed James.” Good God.

  “So…so you’re saying that Mallory accidentally shot him.” Relief flooded her voice.

  “An accident or not…he still killed Jamie, and he shall pay dearly for that.”

  “You call that Frenchman, brother? And he is a Marquis as well? Oh, this won’t be at all confusing, will it? You…you and Challant have allied yourselves in your grief when you were enemies during the Wars? That doesn’t say much for your brother love, does it?”

  “Louis-Daniel…was…well, he was instrumental for our side. He did things for the British that we couldn’t do for ourselves.”

  Her mind reeled. Was he telling her that his brother had spied for the British, while maintaining the façade of being loyal to Napoleon? She…she couldn’t seem to mentally grasp any of it. She was numb with shock.

  “So, my brother was aiming for Challant and Jamie got in the way, didn’t he? He got in the way on purpose?”

  “Aye,” Archie said, his eyes hard.

  “I cannot believe it has come to this. Well, I guess you had better lead me bound and gagged away from Welford Abbey. I will never be yours the way that you want me to be. But I shall stick to my word. You do not need Elizabeth, or Susan.”

  “The Duchess is hiding in the secret passages, isn’t she? I could root her out—and drag her kicking and screaming with her babe in her arms. My mother would love to have a beautiful baby like Susan around the Estate. She would be in seventh heaven.”

  Never again would she trust a man so easily. To think she had thought him to be a good just man. She needed to have her head examined. Her heart belonged to no man. She had been betrayed for the last time.

  She gave him a withering look, hoping he would just shut his bone box. “You will never find Elizabeth or Susan. The passages can be confusing. If you take the wrong turn you could be lost for hours.”

  “Lady Fortune seems to be on your side tonight, wife. Unfortunately, I don’t have hours to spare, at the moment. Your brother could be onto my scent as we speak. The sooner I abs
cond from this place, the better for the both of us.”

  “Better for you, perhaps, husband. It would certainly not be better for me. You are not the sort of man I would steal away with in the dead of the bloody night. Leave now, while you can still keep yourself from making another fatal mistake. I might be able to convince Mallory that he doesn’t need to go after you. He might be swayed if I pleaded with him.”

  “I’ve seen how much your so-called pleading can sway Mallory. When it comes right down to it, Mallory will do whatever Mallory wants, and damn the consequences. He is a man almost as selfish as you. Except now, he only has concern for his wife and child. You are next to nothing to him. He will be glad to be rid of you. I have told you time and again, you are my wife. It is your duty to follow where I lead. Take a good long look at the abbey, dearest, for you shan’t be seeing it again for a good long while.”

  Her head whirled. “I feel faint, sir.” Her head swam from the pressure of it all. Swaying on her feet, he moved forward to catch her. She blinked. “I see stars, it must finally be overwhelming me. I…I am not prone to fainting.”

  He made a weird gesture with his hand, and someone stepped forward with a leather flask. He handed it to her, “Drink this, it will get some of that color you have lost back into your cheeks.”

  “I do not need that.” She pushed his hand away. “Whatever sort of alcohol it is, I don’t require it. I want a clear head for whatever else you might try to pull over on me. Mallory will fight his way back into reclaiming possession of this house. While we stand and chitchat like this, Ainsworth is losing a precious lot of blood. If I must go with you to expedite your withdrawal from this house, then why tarry?”

  “Why, indeed, wife.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her with him. On their way to one of the back entrances, they met a very unlikely blockade.

  At first, Charles looked happy and relieved to see Archie and her. “Aunt Gemma, we’ve nearly got them beat, Seamus told me to run in here and check on—” Charles had never been a half-wit, and he wasn’t going to start being the village idiot now. “You shouldn’t hold Aunt Gemma’s hand like that, Lord Northam, she looks as if you are pinching her too hard.” He cocked his head to the side. Skye came trotting up to stand next to Charles. Gemma swallowed, as dawning recognition glimmered in Charles’s eyes. Surprise turned to dumbstruck horror. “You are, you are—” Charles’s eyes widened. “You just let her go, or I shall be forced to hurt you, sir.” He balled his tiny hands into fists.

  She bit her lip, looking frantically between Charles and Archie. She couldn’t let Archie lose his temper with Charles.

  “Charles, just run. These men behind us aren’t on our side. Just go and tell Mallory that…” She raised her voice with each word. Archie pulled her roughly toward him, her arm smarted.

  He gently placed his hand over her mouth. “I am sorry, I pulled too hard, Gemma.”

  “Save your blasted apologies,” she mumbled, against his hand, fighting the urge to bite his hand. If she did bite him, he just might lash out at Charles. She couldn’t take that risk. Archie could call her selfish all he wanted, but she would not stand idly by, while those she loved got hurt.

  “Grab the child. He knows too much, we will have to take him with us. Take the Maltese as well. We are leaving now!”

  Charles looked as if he wanted to give a great struggle, but she put a look of warning on her face, hoping he would follow her silent command. She knew Archie wouldn’t kill Charles. She didn’t however, trust the Marquis. She still believed him to be capable of anything, including killing Charles just to shut him up. She wouldn’t fight Archie. She didn’t have the heart left to give any sort of struggle. They carted Charles off with her pet before she could say anything else.

  “If he is hurt in anyway whatsoever, I shall make your life miserable.”

  “I wouldn’t harm Charles. I like the little lad, and his tenacity is quite a credit to his character. He certainly has potential. Reared right, he will turn into a commendable young man.”

  Before she knew it, she was in a carriage, alone with Archie.

  “So, maybe you should tell me why you had to marry me? Why did you do it? And is your name really Archibald Campbell?”

  “It is,” he said calmly.

  “And you are the Marquess of Northam?”

  “I am,” he confirmed. Her heart felt a jolt of relief. At least that part of their lives had not been a lie.

  “And the vicar who married us and the special marriage license?”

  “If what you seek to know is whether or not we are legally married…we are. You are my wife. That shall never change.”

  “It might not ever change until you make me a widow.”

  “You hate me that much, my love?” he asked, worry dancing in his eyes.

  She leaned forward. “I loathe you,” she sneered, placing as much contempt into her voice as she could muster.

  His eyes lost their worry, and started to snap with the anger she knew so well.

  “You can continue loathing me, Gemma. You shall never escape me.”

  “Don’t rub it in,” she scoffed. “We are over.”

  “Oh, I beg to differ with you on that one, dear wife. We are only just beginning. You will find over the course of the next few days that you will want to stick as close to me as possible.”

  “Don’t bet on it. I would rather stick close to a Frenchman. I might even want to keep company with the Marquis over you. You lied to us all. You are the worst of blackguards,” her voice broke. “You are too horrid for words. I can’t even comprehend why you would do such a thing. Mallory trusted you! He believed in you. He thought you were a good friend. Instead, you have thrown it all away, and even our marriage cannot salvage things. For what? Revenge? If Mallory did kill your brother it was an accident! I cannot believe that he would intentionally fire to kill a young boy of seventeen. That’s just not in Mallory’s nature.”

  “Oh, I have gained everything. I have shown Mallory just how foolish a man he is, and I have taken more than you will ever know from him. As for aligning myself with Louis-Daniel, I did not choose my family. As strange as it might seem, Louis-Daniel loves my mother as well, since she took him in after the French part of his family was killed. She nurtured and loved him just as she loved all of her children. She gave him the motherly love he had always craved. And Louis-Daniel is always loyal to those he loves. You might not see it yet, but he’s as passionate a man as you could ever find. He will even come to love you as he loves our sisters. Just wait and see. You don’t know just how much I have wounded your brother, I wish I could see his face when he finally discovers just how cruelly I’ve taken him for a merry little ride. St. Martin will not be able to recover for I have taken his pride.”

  “Oh, you are quite mistaken. He shall live. He will live so he can kill you.”

  She shivered when he burst into hearty gales of laughter. “You will be a constant delight for me, wife.”

  “Indeed. Well, you’d best watch yourself, Archie. I just might be inclined to make myself a merry widow.”

  “You could never cause me harm.”

  “Never say never, Archie, darling.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Archie hadn’t realized how vehemently she would react.

  She truly did look as if she loathed him. What she couldn’t understand was his side of the story, and he doubted that she ever would. She could try to paint him as a monster, just as much as he could try to justify his actions. It was the only way he could ever put the ghosts of his past to rest. When he’d first set out to befriend Mallory and draw him into his complex web, he’d never counted on seeing the man behind the monster that had killed his brother.

  Jamie had died trying to protect Louis-Daniel. Louis-Daniel had gone off to spy for the British against Napoleon, and had done it so well that he had been awarded a peerage. Louis-Daniel who had done his duty valiantly, and had lost their brother Jamie because of it, they couldn’t blame Louis-Dani
el, Jamie had died thinking he was protecting his brother from Mallory who hadn’t known that Louis-Daniel was working for the British.

  It had all been a cocked up mess, and it had ended up costing Jamie his life. Louis-Daniel felt crippling guilt because of it. He had held Jamie as he had died, knowing that St. Martin had killed him by accident. It wasn’t a wonder that Louis-Daniel couldn’t face his life, Archie didn’t know if he would want to face his life either considering what Louis-Daniel had seen and done. Louis-Daniel told him that Jamie had clung to him in his last moments, and had died professing his love for him, and giving him his forgiveness for siding against them, and the rest of his family. If only, if only Jamie had known the truth, he’d told Louis-Daniel that he had no regrets, Jamie hadn’t died with anger in his heart…so why couldn’t they let go of their anger?

  He watched as Gemma slowly nodded off to sleep in the carriage. Her head lolled to the side. He sat up and quickly moved to the seat that Gemma sat on. Cradling her against him, he lent her his shoulder to use as a pillow. He had no choice in the matter, his mother and the ghost of a man that used to be his father had begged him to gain revenge against Jamie’s killer for years. He couldn’t deny his mother, not when her health had continued on a steady decline, soon he feared she would be as frail as his once broad chested father now was. He wanted to see the strong robust woman he remembered, he wanted to see her powerful nature again, but she’d crawled into her own protective shell where she could seal her heart against other heartbreak while at the same time living in a reality of her own making. If gaining revenge against Mallory would bring his parents back to the land of the living, then he would do that no matter how many enemies he created or how many bridges he had to burn in the process. Somehow he would get past Gemma’s fury.

  Mallory would never be able to locate him. Even though they wouldn’t be far from him, Mallory wouldn’t suspect a thing.

  At the moment, he was probably mounting an expedition to France, Spain or the West Indies, not even guessing what Archie had planned. Mallory believed himself to be a cunning and resourceful man, and Archie had allowed him to believe that he was the more intelligent one when it came to such matters. Mallory was in for a rude awakening, and by the time he did locate Gemma, it would be too late.